Sometimes I Amaze Even Myself

My ability to concentrate on school took a nosedive around Wednesday. I spent the next two days pretending that wasn't true and trying to make myself do work anyway. This led to one of those productive reading sessions were I'd read the same line over and over again for half an hour and still have no idea what it said.

By Friday, I decided I needed to take a brief mental vacation in hopes that my ability to concentrate would magically resurface. After class, my friend came over for delicious lunch and a viewing of Thursday night's Apprentice (if you missed it, check out Whitney's recap--it always rocks). He left to go to class and I decided to do homework. I proceeded to catch up on the SIX AND A HALF HOURS of tv I had DVRed this week. I am a champion! A pathetic champion, but a champion nonetheless. This weekend, not only did I catch up on all the important television I didn't get to watch during the week, but managed to see two movies, hit four bars, buy about twenty-five dollars worth of music on itunes and have one drunken dinner. I did no work at all. In fact, when I sat down to get some work done, I ended up writing this instead. Something is definitely wrong with me.

New Realization

I am finally starting to understand why people bitch about the first year of law school.
Having all this work sucks.
Can I watch TV yet?

Things I Heart Complaining About

Ok, I know I fell off the face of the earth for a little while. I was very busy doing important things, like feeling guilty about how little work I was doing in comparison to how much work other people made it sound like they were doing. And then going out for drinks instead of doing work (you know, to alleviate the guilt). Wow, I'm probably going to fail out of law school.

Anyway, last night, while I was sitting in exorbitant traffic in a cab on the way to meet my friends at a bar (why they all have to in the same neighborhood and always go out in that neighborhood is beyond me, especially, and probably only, because it is not my neighborhood), I started thinking about all those little annoying things often observed in New York. Some of them include:

• watching the cab meter add up while sitting at a stand-still in midtown traffic
• people who try to hail cabs that don't have their lights on
• people who try to hail the cab that I am clearly already sitting in
• when people stop short for no reason while walking in the middle of the sidewalk
• when people stop short in the middle of the sidewalk to take a picture
• tourists who take pictures of stupid things (oooh, a garbage can!)
• cab drivers who jerk forward and/or slam on their brakes
• car sickness
• throwing up in cabs
• bike riders who get mad when they ride right into an opening cab door (sorry!)
• lists that make me sound bitter
  

Is It Just Me, Or Is Everyone Crazy?

It can't just be me. My fellow 1Ls are totally actually crazy. At least a majority of them, anyway. We have had exactly five days of class, and I am already overhearing people in my section saying things like "I spent four hours writing briefs yesterday!" and "I couldn't go out last night, I had so much work to do." Um, guys, we had three cases to read for today. It might have totaled 12 pages, maximum. I'm not saying it's easy or that it won't take a while to get the hang of it, but we got out of class at 3:30. What could have possibly been so time consuming that you wouldn't have been done in time for dinner?

Also, don't tell anyone, because I know it's my obligation as a stressed-out 1L to complain about how much I loathe law school and how difficult it is, but so far, I really like it. This is probably an obvious indication that it was only the first week of class, that the work has not begun piling up yet, and that I have not been humiliated in class so far. I'll let you know when I'm kicking myself for speaking too soon.

There is, of course, another possibility. That is that I'm not smart enough to have realized already how hard it is. I would definitely not rule that one out just yet.